Survival of the Fittest
by Mad Maruri Tigerfox
Summary: That is the way of her kind: sink or swim. And she must swim if she even dreams of ever returning home...
1. Dropped Off

_**Note:**Avatar has given me the inspriation to write again. I have never gotten this into any of my stories and I'm thinking this will be one of my best. I hope you enjoy._

* * *

The ship sailed through the vacuum of space slowly. They were very lucky that the "aliens" had visited them, but the "aliens" were definitely not lucky that they had. Those odd creatures had absolutely no idea what they were getting themselves into. Going up against creatures like them was not a very smart idea on their part.

"Father Itzal…" whispered the pilot as he came to an incredibly slow stop, "We have arrived…"

Nodding to both himself and his driver, he rocked a little girl in his arms. Her light brown skin contrasted against the golden yellow of his. She was fast asleep in his tight grip. The lighter brown triangles on her face wrinkled as her nose twitched. Her body started getting its functions back. It wouldn't be long before she woke up.

He looked outside of the opening on the ship through the glass of his mask. The atmosphere of Pandora was just below the vessel.

It was finally time.

As the golden skinned being held this little one outside of the transporter, his pilot gave into the urge of making sure he wanted to go through with his plan.

"Father Itzal… Please… Tell me that you are fully supportive of doing this… Especially to her… She is so young…"

"Dov… My son… Do not question me. She will go here and she will survive for if she does not, I will definitely not return for her." He swung her some in his grasp as he looked at the serene expression on her face. Her nose twitched yet again and his eyes narrowed some. "She _will_ survive."

Dov gulped some as he leaned the ship toward the atmosphere to where the little one would be directly placed in it. He shouldn't have thought that his kind was so barbaric in their ways, but he couldn't stand the thought of such a young one being dropped off in this place all alone and by herself.

Yet there was no way he'd be able to stop Itzal. There was a reason he was the leader of their entire race. There was absolutely no way he could stop him

Pulling her back into his grasp, he pressed his lips to her forehead and he whispered to her as a pulsing went through both of their bodies, "You know our ways… Do what you must to survive…"

He held her out again as he bent down, putting her as close as he could to the atmosphere and he dropped her without any hesitation. Dov moved forward in his seat towards her, but no further than a few inches. There was nothing he could do now that she had entered into the deadly atmosphere, though nowhere near as deadly as their own.

And just as she did, she plunged to the jungle floor that would be below sooner or later.

The air around her filled her lungs quickly and her small frame immediately pulsed with life. Her lungs expanded frantically as she assessed her situation and, as fast as she could grabbed onto a nearby vine that started to pass by her. She was in the Hallelujah Mountains, but she didn't know that, not yet. It was just a scary, new place that she had never seen before. It was going to be her new home as of now.

Itzal stared at the planet as he watched this one delve into the misty clouds of Pandora and he smiled some to himself. He signaled Dov to take off and return back to their home planet, but he chose to leave with giving her orders that would hang in the air outside of this place forever…

"Sink or swim, my darling daughter. Sink. Or. Swim."

* * *

_**Pronunciation (just in case)-**_

_Dov: Dove_

_Itzal: Eet-sall (Like salt with out the "t")_

_Author's Note: This is how I would like these names pronounced, even if it is not originally how they are. It's what I thought they were pronounced like and I like it._


	2. A Mentor

The thanator crept close to her as she hid in the underbrush, her skin rapidly changing with the variations in the sunlight's position on her. Her rainbow colored eyes watched it closely as her front side was low to the ground. She had killed a beast like this one earlier on in her life of survival on this planet and used every bit of substance that it possessed, in respect to the life here and to the natives. The swift kill she had given it was also in respect of the fact that she had to kill it.

But there was no time to kill this one. Tonight was going to be the night she memorized the patterns of the Na'vi and finally be able to blend in with them, learn more about them, and possibly become one of them and she was not going to allow this animal to stop her, but she couldn't let it kill her either. Choices… Choices…

She took hold of a nearby rock and tossed it quite a distance to her right. As it rolled down the small hill in between two vegetation covered trees, the thanator stopped quickly snapping its head in the direction of the bouncing sound. A low growl came from the beast as it crept slowly towards it and then recklessly pounced through the opening. That was her chance and she took it.

She took off running, covering her getaway under the intense sounds of the thanator wrestling with practically itself. That was way too easy, but she wasn't going to complain about it. Easy was what she needed if she was going to make it to the Hometree in time.

There was no time to waste…

…

She looked around at the different hammock like beds as she crawled along the long, systematic like branches that lit up lightly under her steps. They looked incredibly inviting and comfortable. All she had to lay on was the ground that was below her at the time she decided to go to sleep.

She shook her head rapidly, waving her multicolored hair around causing it to change colors at a fast speed. This was no time to be envying these sleeping inhabitants! She was trespassing and if she were to get caught because of her wayward thoughts… Those thoughts made her shudder.

Her intentions needed a, in a sense, weak individual most likely one of the humans who had been accepted into their clan. One who would give into her easily if they were to wake up.

And the perfect specimen caught her attention.

She leaped into the air as the sound of a Na'vi giving a breathy gasp reached her sensitive canine like ears that angled out some and they laid flat against her head. Her eyes scanned frantically, trying to figure out who had just made that sound. What if they were awake and had seen her? What would happen to her then?!

As she lay close to the top of the walk way, she stopped all of her bodily functions, aside from hearing, and froze in her place. Halting everything assisted in her pin pointing the being.

Her right ear twitched some as a rustle echoed from that direction. She crawled over slowly and silently towards the causer of her fright and saw one of the "humans" sleeping soundly in his bed.

His clothes were obviously human seeing as though they almost fully covered his body, barely exposing any of his blue skin. His hair was like all of theirs, a dark brown. He was clutching the long braid that must have wrapped around him in his sleep. She looked at hers and made sure everything was "up to code". It was of course, but it never hurt to check.

She gave her gaze back to the sleeping creature in his bed and crept forward, moved the top of the hammock back out of her way, and moved in closer to him to where she was basically looming over him like a predator.

Leaning herself even further towards him, she set her own face about two inches from his. Her eyes traveled over his face, memorizing the certain colors, the light blue dots that covered part of his nose and cheeks, the lines that went down his features and slowly did her skin mimic it.

He seemed like a very "willing" person to teach her the Na'vi ways. If she were to wake him and demand that he teach her all he knew, he would most definitely do so she was sure of it. But if he wasn't going to abide by her demands… Well, there was no point thinking about that since she had no doubt in her mind that he would give into her very quickly. She wouldn't have been where she was if she hadn't studied every potential candidate.

But it seemed that she didn't have to wake him on her own, he did that all by himself and she followed all of his movements, to avoid colliding heads.

Jolting awake, the not-so-indigenous of Pandora jumped slightly in his bed from a bad dream. Sweat had formed on his forehead and his eyes stayed closed as he wiped the fluid from his skin while breathing heavily. What a bad dream it had been… It was so real too. It really felt like the looming presence was actually there.

And then his forearm brushed against the forehead of that exact presence.

His eyes shot open, immediately being caught in the hard and extremely strong gaze of his guest. She was now her natural brown color, her rainbow eyes glimmering with the reflection of her scared prey.

'_OH MY GOD!' _his mind screamed, _'Who in the world is this?! I've never seen her before!! I don't know this person!' _His mind was going nuts with thoughts and questions that all he could think of to do was scream so he began to open his mouth to do just that, but her hand quickly flew over his mouth.

She was not going to allow him to blow her cover.

"Shhh!" she mouthed, her lips moving very harshly. The grip she had on his mouth tightened to show her seriousness. Then, she spoke in a very hushed tone. "You must keep quiet if you want me to let go. Can you do that?"

After he nodded and inwardly prayed to Eywa that he would not die tonight, she released the bottom half of his face from her grip and then jumped, and lightly landed on the sturdy material of his bed, her feet on either side of him with her legs bent up level to her chest. He sat up from underneath her, attempting not to anger her any.

"Wha–"

"Hush," she said with a sharp tone and pressed her finger to his blue lips, "You must teach me more about the Na'vi. You will teach me more about the Na'vi, yes." It was more of a demand that had no room for questioning or rejection for that matter.

As she took her finger away he replied very quickly, but made sure to keep his voice down, "But why me, though? Why not Neytiri? Or… Or… Jake? Or maybe even Mo'at?!"

A smile came onto her face as he stuttered with her presence being there and that close. It was obvious that he was frightened, but he was also nervous to have a foreign being only a very small distance from himself, especially one with her aura.

"I could not ask them, especially not Neytiri or Mo'at. All three of them are busy with matters more important than an outsider wanting to become one of their own, but, from what I have observed, you are not that bust and you _will_ teach me_._" Being forcefully straight forward was the only way to get what she wanted from him, though just staring at him, he began to grow on him. She then got an idea. "What if I teach you in return," she offered as she sat back on his thighs. His muscles tensed and she giggled lightly.

"W-W-What could ya-you teach me…?" He stumbled over words. Every nerve he possessed had to have morphed into a butterfly because the feeling of butterfly wings fluttering filled every single part of him. Being the kind of person he was, he definitely wasn't ready for a female, of any kind, to be so willing to get this close to him.

"I could teach you how to be more like me and my kind. I would…" She took hold of his arms and pressed around on the muscles. "Make you stronger, tougher, more of a fit animal than a pest surviving because of strong friends…" Her eyes locked with his. "You teach me how to be a Na'vi; I teach you how to be a stronger man."

"…" He was silent. He didn't really care if he was a stronger man. He was perfectly fine with how he was, but her offering up to teach him meant she was serious about learning. And it would prove to him just how much he knew about the Na'vi. So he nodded. "Sure. I'll teach you, but you don't _have_ to teach me."

She cocked her head to the side. He didn't want to be taught how to be stronger? That was a bit strange... She figured that males on any planet would want to increase their strength, but if he didn't wish to bulk himself up that was his choice.

Or at least that's what she tried to tell herself anyway. Deep down she knew she would even if he did refuse it. She didn't have anything else to do.

She held her hands up, palms facing him and she gave him a friendly smile. She was inviting him to take her hands and he wasn't hesitant to do so, some to his dismay.

Matching his long fingers with the gaps in hers he set them against one another. He wasn't sure what was going to happen, but he wasn't going to turn down one of her customs for fear of making her angry and his question was answered very quickly.

Curling her own fingers over between the gaps in his, she dug her nails into the flesh between his knuckles. He winced at the sudden, slight pain that pulsed through his hands. His teeth clenched, he hissed some through though teeth, his fingers folded over her hand and gripped on, the whole package. It was an amazing pain, even though she had barely stabbed him.

"That, my friend, is how _my_ kind make a deal…" He winced once more as she removed her nails from his skin and she suddenly mimicked the Na'vi colorings. A smile came onto her face. "In blood is how we promise to one another that we will not betray the other."

"Well… what about you…?" he asked while bringing his hands to him, inspecting the wounds, "Don't I need to do the same to you?"

She looked him straight in the eyes, and was very quick to close the distance between the two of them. Her intentions for this weren't only to make him uncomfortable, it was also a way to assess his character more.

"You would not be able to do it. And you do not have to worry. I am a beast of my word," she assured. After slowly pulling away from him she then she stood and began to leave. As she climbed the back up to the branch that she had come on she told him, "I will see you at mid-day…"

"Wait!" he said in a quiet voice. He jumped after her slightly and grabbed onto the tough vine hanging around her waist making her stop immediately. "Don't we need to know who each other are?"

That made her stop in the middle of lifting herself up. He was right. She didn't even know who in the name of Ewya he was and he the same with her. And it wouldn't hurt to know his name.

"Yes…" she said back to him while turning back to face him, "What is your name?"

_'Damn… you sure are a tough cookie…' _he thought to himself as he sighed at the personality she showed, _'I figured you'd introduce yourself first…'_ Hopefully she would be a better student than she was a "person" in general. "My name is Norm. Norm Spellman. What about you?"

As she formed his names with her lips, trying to get the motion of the odd name down, she said, "My name is Tzila." He repeated the name. It made her insides swell and her ears perk up some as he said it. "I shall see you at mid-day… Norm Spellman."

She began to move slowly down the branch, her skin quickly changing to blend her in, but she stopped and then looked back at him.

"And do not dare be late," she mouthed

He watched her slink away on the branch at an amazing speed and once she was out of sight, he laid back down in his bed. He tangled up the long braid of hair between his fingers. She was going to be a bit of a difficult one, but she also seemed like fun. Not even the Na'vi was as rough and tough as her, or none that he had seen yet.

"I had better get some sleep…"

* * *

_Pronunciation -_

_Tzila: Tsee-luh (there's just barely a hint of the "t")_


	3. First Day

He scribbled in his little note pad, writing down certain things about her and making a few little "diary" entries every once in a while. Tzila was enjoying herself immensely on her first day of Na'vi training. She was up on a Pa'li, having it trample through the vegetation and the water with little struggle now.

_Her third time up on the Pa'li seems like it was the charm. The Pa'li himself seems to like her finally. I was beginning to get worried that she wasn't going to be able to ride him… But she's learning fast. She's already mastered the commands I had given her to say to him to get him to move. She knows bits and pieces of the Na'vi language and that's enough to get a native to understand her, but hopefully I can get her to a point where she can speak fluently. Lucky for her though she can speak English too…_

As he wrote a little more on her, she leaped off of her Direhorse the antenna that attached the two of them together in hand, and landed right in front of him. Norm jumped back some, not ready for her landing in front of him and she grinned wide.

"Did you see, Norm Spellman? I was finally able to ride him!" she sang to him while clapping her hands and jumping up and down some. Her Pa'li followed her movements and splashed the water below him all over, soaking both her and her teacher.

"Yes… Yes, I did see…" he replied to her with a small smile, incredibly thankful that his notebook had not been given a watering, "I did see and I'm quite impressed."

"But how could you see my accomplishment when you are and were looking down in that writing book of yours?"

She questioned him and his actions quite a bit. He didn't mind though. It was a way for him to explain to her about his previous human ways which some he had kept and learn about her culture and customs. Like earlier this afternoon…

…_**She circled him slowly, pulling at the clothes on his body, inspecting every aspect of him. He pulled out his note book, started a new page, and put his first observation of his pupil.**_

_- She's very curious_

"_**So why do you wear so much covering, Norm Spellman?" she asked him while tugging some at his baggy pants.**_

"_**Well…" he started, feeling a bit uncomfortable with her being so inquisitive and open about her curiosity, "Where I came from i–"**_

"_**Which is earth, yes?"**_

"_**Euh… Yes, it was… um… rude to not wear clothes that covered most of your body." She gave him a confused look and her ears perked up some. When they did that it added to her canine looks to where she actually looked like an innocent puppy and that made him smile. "People don't really like it when you wear barely anything in public."**_

_**She went around to his back side, looking him over and pulled at one of the belt loops, "But, these things slow you down when you work, yes? Or hunt? Or fight?"**_

_**He shook his head.**_

"_**Not really seeing that I don't exactly hunt… And fighting isn't exactly my thing." He gave her a smile as she looked at him, yet again with a confused expression. "Do you hunt and fight on your home?"**_

_**She nodded to him as she came back around to his front side. The Pa'li they had been searching for in the first place had just come trotting to the opening for water.**_

"_**Of course we do," she said while going over and gazing at the Pa'li, checking out its "stats". "That is one of the many ways we test our abilities. It is by showing our hunting skills or fighting abilities. Though the ultimate test is **__**survival**__**." And before he could ask her more, she turned around back to facing him. "Can we get started?"…**_

"I'm not constantly looking down in my book, Tzila," he told her while putting it back into its holder and returning the pencil he had back into his bag, "I saw, don't worry and you've come a long way from when we first started this afternoon."

She shook her head some in agreement and some in disagreement. She had come a long way in her knowledge of the Na'vi since they had began, but she felt that there was an even longer way for her to go to even come close to being accepted into the clan. One short afternoon was not going to cut it.

The light of day was retreating on their time with one another and Tzila quickly took Norm's hand in hers.

"I need to assess your abilities before time completely runs out," she told him as she pulled his body towards her.

He tripped over his own feet, not ready for the sudden pull, and collided right with the Tzila's upper chest. He was very lucky that she was as tall as she was. As he looked up at her, her head shook even more in disappointment in him. An apologetic grin came onto his face as he straightened himself up and he gave an embarrassed laugh.

"Sorry about that…" he said to her as he rubbed the back of his head, "I just wasn't ready…"

"Yes… Yes…" she muttered as she walked around him, eyeing his build and body in general, "Excuses… Excuses…" As he went to protest against her accusation, her hands wrapped around his biceps like she had done the night before and she felt up and down his arms.

His muscles tensed up yet again from her forceful intrusion of his personal space. Tzila had just about no respect for someone's comfort zone or at least that's what she made Norm think. She did have respect, but there was no way he was going to become stronger. He needed to get over that nervous feeling of someone being this close, and possibly closer. And she, being a female, getting that close was the only way to train him to get to that point.

Moving over to his front side again, she ran her hands over his chest lightly feeling the somewhat developed pectoral muscles and moved down to his abdomen. There were muscles there as well, but they were barely developed.

Locking gazes with him, she gave a small smile that made him very curious and somewhat fearful.

Suddenly, she quickly and gently jabbed her fist into his abs to test out the strength of the lower half of his mid section. There wasn't much of it.

Watching him bend over, Tzila's lips moved to the side as she thought of a way to improve his overall condition. There was no time to do that today seeing as though she was losing daylight every second. And she needed to find her next resting spot soon before anything seriously dangerous came out.

"We shall continue tomorrow," she said quickly, forcing him to stand up straight and embrace the pain lightly surging through his abdomen. Without any hesitation at all, she leaned in and gave him a kiss on his forehead. His eyes widened to an amazing size. If he had opened them any further they probably would have fallen out. "Another custom my kind has. To say 'we shall see one another again'." Norm paused for a long time, still trying to process the gesture of friendliness. "Is that a problem?"

He shook his head rapidly.

"No, no, no!" he told her, "Not at all. I was just… just a bit thrown off is all." He shuffled the top of his boot behind him as he looked into her eyes with a questioning gaze. "Do I need to…?"

She gave him a small nod, "It would be preferred if you did."

Swallowing the lump in his throat he did the same as she, but it took her leaning into the farewell for any real contact to come between the two of them. Tzila gave him a human gesture of goodbye once he moved away and began to go on her way, but Norm got an idea. Repetition was always a good way of learning.

"Tzila!"

She stopped and turned back to him. Her insides swelled like they had the night before, but she didn't let anything show. As her kind found it was right to do.

"Kìyevame ulte Eywa ngahu." *

A teeth exposing smile came onto her face as he smiled back at her.

"Kìyevame ulte Eywa ngahu," she said back to him and then darted quickly towards her next resting place.

…

Norm walked back into Hometree with a smile on his face as he looked at his note book. Today was just incredible and the notes he had taken on her customs were enormous. She was very open about what her kind was like. There was nothing she would hide from anyone who asked, but then again she had said that they had pride in what they were and what they did. They had nothing to hide.

"Hey Norm!" His train of thought had been broken by his friend Jake Sully who trotted up to him. "Where were you today? You left after about… half of training? And…" Jake's nose started sniffing uncontrollably at the scent on Norm. "What's that smell…?"

Eyes looking down some, Norm tried to come up with an excuse for the odd smell that was on him. It was most likely Tzila's… But what kind of excuse could he come up with to fool his friend?

"Um… I was just out gathering some information on a curious new plant I had run across. It's probably that. It smelled a bit funky to me too, but you get used to it."

A wide grin crawled onto Jake's face, "Well better you than me!"

As they both laughed, Norm's mouth opened into a large yawn and he ended up stretching his long limbs. It seemed the day had taken more out of him than he had anticipated.

"I'm going to head onto bed, Jake, if that's alright…" He walked past him, waving a goodnight to him and headed up to his nice, comfy, inviting bed.

Tomorrow was going to come fast.

…

Tzila laid in her bed gazing that the stars above her. Her home was out there somewhere and she had to have been looking straight at it at some point and didn't know it.

She was situated comfortably in her make shift hammock and was "day" dreaming. It was high off the ground to where she was out of reach for any of the seriously harmful ground fauna, but she wasn't so high that she would be a target for any of the aerial fauna either.

"Oh, Father Itzal…" she said to herself as she scanned over the night sky, "When will you come back for me…? When will you come back for your daughter, father?" The dark sky mesmerized her eyes and the wind blew softly, rocking her bed and began lulling her to sleep. As her eye lids began to weigh down, her mind drifted from her home to Norm and a smile came to her. "You and I are one in the same Norm Spellman… We will both be hard pupils to teach…"

* * *

* "See you again, and may Eywa be with you."


End file.
